Draft legislation for the 2015 Finance Bill

Much of the Bill relates to measures that were announced in principle in the 2014 Budget. Since then consultation exercises have been carried out, and the draft legislation largely reflects the results of that process.

The broad shape of the legislation is now determined. The government is seeking views on whether the draft legislation achieves its objectives, and whether it throws up unexpected anomalies, but at this stage it is not open to representations that there should be major policy changes.

The legislation will take effect from a variety of dates, as indicated, but in general from April 2015.

The published material deals with some 70 separate areas, as listed below. Included in the list are a small number of areas where the draft legislation was issued last week in conjunction with the Autumn Statement.

Last week’s draft legislation also included material dealing with changes to stamp duty land tax on residential property. This will not form part of the Finance Bill but was published and introduced in Parliament on 4 December as the Stamp Duty Land Tax Bill.